Norwegian Wood

What is the big deal with this song? It doesn't even make sense. He hangs out with some girl, doesn't have sex with her, and then burns her house down while she's at work. Why? What is it even supposed to be about?

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it's an allegory for pot use

How? You're saying he didn't burn down the house, but just lit a bowl? In that case the song has no meaning or dramatic tension at all.

It's a surrealist take on pop music

>I once had a girl or should I say she once had me

it takes the idea of the boy-girl love song and immediately begins to stray from that ideal by introducing a twist on the dynamic

he proceeds to paint this woman by making her a lover of cheap furniture, she doesn't own a chair, she seems pleased with him sitting on the floor, she laughs when he cucks him.

Then things get weirder, he sleeps in the bath. The protagonist who has helplessly watched this strange woman and then gotten nothing from her is left alone, and in rage against the obscurity of it all takes revenge.

It only says "so I lit a fire." it's a great phrase -- it could be him burning down the house, it could just be him lighting the fireplace, it could be him lighting a cigarette or a joint, it could be him masturbating, it could be him falling in love with her. The proceeding line, "isn't it good / norwegian wood" hints toward the "he got salty and burned down her house" but it's not clear.

Essentially, it paints a strange woman, and the last line revels in the complete absurdity as the meaning and complexity in the song. It's also notable for introducing a female character with actual traits and not as an object for love or with generalities like "she's so sweet" or whatever.

This feel, both abstract and very real, is a very good reflection of the attitude toward women rubber soul has and the types of lyrical tonality that I relate a lot toward. Combined with the sort of angular, chopped up melody that in a lot of previous albums John Lennon was trying for, the general cool folksy mellowness of the track, and the exotic but cohesive addition of the sitar, the song is a very excellent track.

Does that explain it?

>doesn't have sex with her

This is not true.

Also, the irony of Norwegian Wood is very simple: that Lennon thinks he's hot shit, but after banging him this woman proceeds to simply leave like he's just another fuck.

I love you

He rejects even sleeping in the same room with her though. He feels mocked and is literally laughed at, which makes him opt for the bathroom as a place to sleep. Before that point, he was stuck sitting on a rug with nothing to do, and even though it isn't explicitly said, it's suggested that all they did was talk, nothing more

Who says songs have to be sensical to be good

>I once had a girl
>Or should I say she once had me
"I once had (bagged, sexually) a girl, or should I say she once had (put one over on) me."

He is invited into her hotel room. The absence of the chair is meant to imply that she sat down on the bed and expected him to sit next to her as a precursor to sex. Instead he plays coy and sits on the floor so he can remain in control.

They have this "war" of who's going to crack first until she finally makes it explicit: it's time for bed.

After they fuck, she makes a light-hearted comment, rolls over and goes to sleep like it's nothing. He takes this opportunity to take a bath and dozes off.

The morning comes and she is gone, leaving him high and dry. She has won their petty battle of the sexes. He burns the shoddy wood paneling as an act of revenge.

Honestly that's a running theme of Rubber Soul just in general, how they refined that boy-girl love song formula and toyed around with it; what with a quite silly first track where the girl has dreams of becoming a star but has no start, and as it unfolds you have many different setups and how they play with it - Norwegian Wood's complete surrealism, You Won't See Me and I'm Looking Through You taking the idea and turning it on his head, Girl giving us a woman who's borderline abusive, even the ones that are more standard toy around with the idea - Michelle and the idea of loving someone that doesn't understand you, If I Needed Someone and the teasing throughout the song where we're uncertain about whether he's in love or not...

It's really a far more refined take on their past experiments and you can really feel it, it kind of feels like an early Beatles album just overwhelmingly refined to a point where it actually starts to have some non-pop merit.

The Beatles are fucking top 40 gay shit

Nice trips
I'd say that the first line isn't necessarily sexual, but rather one that focuses on the power play you mentioned. I don't think they two have even met before this point, I think it's the reflection of an isolated event. The intent of the girl was to fuck, but the narrator is above that and would rather sit on the floor and drink what's hers, not offering anything in return. Once the talking is over that's lasted for several hours, the narrator is finally ready to have sex, but the girl laughs at him, letting him know "This Bird Has Flown", as the title states. The opportunity has passed and, having realized this, he storms off and sleeps in the bathtub, out of spite rather than needing a bath. In the morning she's gone once he wakes up, and even though there are several possibilities, he takes the rash route and he, I believe, burns down her house.

The fact the lyrics spawn such varied yet in depth interpretations are a testament to their quality.

Bob Dylan's response to this song was actually a better take on the surrealist pop song idea and bashes lennon. pretty good
youtu.be/jvKZDbAgh4Y

Spoted the pleb

My personal favorite that plays around with the idea is Run for Your Life, where not only is he abusive, but a willing murderer if he sees his bitch with someone else

it's about this guy who thinks he's about to take this smoking hot lass home but turns out she's a man and he gets a bit freaked out at first but by the end he's into it

I listen to music faggot and so many great bands you've never evven heard probably. You just listen to the top 10 most popular bands ever and the greatest of all time album list because you're too lazy to find your own shit fuck you kid. Eat my shit. You never even played music.

And then there's Nowhere Man, the original Forever Alone

There's top 10 artists, then there's the one that tops every list. They're at the top for a reason

>writing songs about girls

Pfft...how droll

I think it's a great album because it really hits a very elusive and mature feel to women and love. Norwegian wood and girl both paint portraits of women that capture the essence of the mysticism and confusion that come with love, and yet the aromatic beauty of it.

You also have just very beautiful, fully mature tracks like Michelle, In My Life, If I Needed someone.

Then there are some tracks that are very prophetic and dominant, like Nowhere Man, Think For Yourself, The Word.

I'm less attached to McCartney's songs but they're pretty good as well, just not the highlights like Lennon's and Harrison's.

I think the album is also very great musically. It's very proto-folk rock, like the stuff the Byrds were gonna do the next year, a perfect blend of folk and rock, without ever indulging too much in country. like beatles for sale or Help. The harmonies are also really beautiful, quite understated and great. It's really the best of both worlds -- the experimental instrumentation and lyricism still grounded in their pop limitations, whose structure lets their ambition reach top heights.

Honestly they all toy around with it, even Nowhere Man which completely ignores it and Think For Yourself that makes it unclear when it comes to figuring out who he's talking to, it's kinda interesting.

My personal favorite is If I Needed Someone where it's left completely out in the open as to whether he loves her or not, and it's kind of a bittersweet teasing.

It's possible that the final intent was that the narrator didn't have sex with the girl, but Norwegian Wood is basically a true, documented story based on one of Lennon's many affairs. They added the little fiction about the fire to give it a more poetic ending than it probably had to begin with.

>1966
>proto-folk rock
Nigger, hwot

2/10 you need to put more space between the red flags so that they seem less forced, and use less of them

That's what ends discussion about deeper meaning in the song, the fact that it's actually based off John being a whore lol

could you share your feelings on tomorrow never knows or im only sleeping?

Then you have What Goes On, in which Ringo continues getting the shit deal with everything in his life.

Tomorrow Never Knows is just kinda a hymn to the sort of hippie mysticism the beatles were the head of those days. It's mostly just packed with metaphysical imagery to match the effect of the music lennon had in mind, matching that sort of simeaultaneously religious and psychedelic music. It's the progression of songs like The Word, which put the Beatles both as prophetic commentators but really more interesting for the way they phrase their phases than the content.

I'm Only Sleeping is a pretty neat song. It has very melodically slow lyrics that thematically progress very slowly. It's mostly to match the very lethargic feel of the music, but it also discusses the identity of Lennon who was, like in the other song you asked about, beginning to realize his social influence. He viewed himself as an observer, wise but misunderstood, watching the world from his bed, not bothered by the people who disagree with his sleepiness.

I like Rubber Soul a lot more than Revolver which I don't listen to as much, because it's more indulgent and less cohesive.

Fun fact, Lennon actually wrote what goes on, part of it years and years before rubber soul. It's a pretty good song too, with restrained country and beautiful backing vocals.

>So I beat my wife
>Isn't it good, Norwegian Wood
What were they thinking?

wait a minute

you think rubber soul is more cohesive than revolver? i like what you have to say about the music but come on

rubber soul is them doing the jangle byrds bob dylan folk routine like a billion other bands. its a groundbreaking album for the beatles i know but compared to revolver its like an entirely new band. ringos drumming is 10 times better on revolver you can at least admit that

Funnily enough, one of the strenghts of Revolver is how they refined the studio - the drums are close-milked for the first time and the bass is a lot more proeminent since Paperback Writer.

I'd say that Revolver is a bit less cohesive as an unit and as an idea compared to Rubber Soul, but what's impressive is how far it can reach and still be cohesive which they sort of lose as they go on.

i compeltely agree with you, except that i dont think its as incohsive as you think

the album was originally called "safari" or beatles on safari as in them going on an adventure through presumably the indian jungle and reinertreping rock music through an eastern lense, which is what more than several songs try to accomplish namely harrisons songs as well as lennons

the universal idea was the impact of drugs, for mccarnety marijuana and lennon ringo and harrison LSD. i think it seems cohesive because of how it was packaged, with several tracks missing from the US print

I'd say that Ringo leans more towards weed on Revolver but yeah, it's a great album, it's just that it covers so much ground in popular music that it's impressive how it doesn't feel disconnected within itself.

i just think its cohesive in that its their first true "psychedelic" album where ever song in one way or another is about drugs or their experience with them

but as actual songs i see what you mean, theres art pop, childens songs, indian drones, etc all spread out with a few B sides to padd it out

its no abbey road medley, but the songs are damn strong though

and you might be right ringo could have taken LSD after or during the recording.

i consider the first true psych album where all members are experienced Magical Mystery Tour. there is no doubt they are making psych rock and every member especially paul had taken acid a few times by then. sgt pepper would normally be considered their height in psych but paul hadnt taken acid til the finishing of the album on some key tracks and the idea behind it not withstanding lennons lucy in the sky contribution was about childhood and nostaliga. and i know those are componats of the acid trip but the album to my understand was never 'about' drugs although it pointed to them. magical mystery tour is them actually applying their experiencing the most overtly

Oh thank goodness, this is the first explanation in the thread that actually makes sense.

I like Rubber Soul over Revolver because of the tonal cohesion. Sure Rubber Soul has the jangly folk rock sound of the byrds, but it's done in a much more restrained fashion than those types of bands and still rooted in their country/pop past so that it comes out a rather eclectic mix of pop music genres while achieveing a perfect blend. Additionally, the sound is much more coherent, innovations being made within the context of the overarching sound. Revolver meanwhile was more a product of the studio experimentations and has a lot of different songs, and the lyrics aren't really related to one another and are more standalone, various indulgences. It's where you can hear the beatles going different directions. It's a more exciting album, but I think Rubber Soul is a more cohesive package and has a deeper appeal.

Also Abbey Road medley is generic shit with only a few good moments.

so many faggot cant poet in this thread
SAD

>reading into lyrics

it was inspired by tran anh hung's film, which also inspired haruki murakami's book

'Norwegian wood' is a term used to describe often and debilitating erectile dysfunction for Norwegian men who can't have sex because the cold climate makes it impossible to have or maintain an erection. It's also based on a book by Haruki Murakami of the same name, in which 'Norwegian wood' of male protagonist leads to severe frustration and later, arson.

>I came in and he had this first stanza, which was brilliant: 'I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me.' That was all he had, no title, no nothing. I said, 'Oh yes, well, ha, we're there.' And it wrote itself. Once you've got the great idea, they do tend to write themselves, providing you know how to write songs. So I picked it up at the second verse, it's a story. It's him trying to pull a bird, it was about an affair. John told Playboy that he hadn't the faintest idea where the title came from but I do. Peter Asher had his room done out in wood, a lot of people were decorating their places in wood. Norwegian wood. It was pine really, cheap pine. But it's not as good a title, Cheap Pine, baby...

>So she makes him sleep in the bath and then finally in the last verse I had this idea to set the Norwegian wood on fire as revenge, so we did it very tongue in cheek. She led him on, then said, 'You'd better sleep in the bath'. In our world the guy had to have some sort of revenge. It could have meant I lit a fire to keep myself warm, and wasn't the decor of her house wonderful? But it didn't, it meant I burned the fucking place down as an act of revenge, and then we left it there and went into the instrumental.

Shut up, Paul. god damnit.

>I once had a girl or should I say, she once had me
He thought he was going to fuck, and he feels like she tricked him, so he burned her house down. What she once bragged about is now fuel for the fire (isn't it good, Norwegian wood).

>What's this song about?

Approximately two minutes and five seconds.

t. Doug Levison

>caring about lyrics

What is confusing me is that the song tries to make the woman seem crazy (she has strange mannerisms and a strange lifestyle), but then in the end the man does a crazy thing. It doesn't seem like a sane response at all, to burn someone's house down because she was weird. Is that the joke? They're both crazy people and neither of their behaviors can be expected to make sense?

>listening to Beatles lyrics

That's kinda what love is.

Just like pottery

>"isn't it good, norwegian wood?"
He fucking burned some hipster's house to the ground.
Stay classy, John.